Total Body Mass Building

 The TBMT Program

     It’s an old adage in bodybuilding/strength communities—and I suppose it’s probably applicable in other arenas, as well—that “everything works, but nothing works for long.”  Or as I also like to say: everything works…for about 6-8 weeks.  Kinda similar to another adage that “the best program is the one you’re not doing.”  Well, you get the point.

     Having said all of those cliched-but-still-true pithy little aphorisms, some programs definitely do work better than others.  It’s the reason that I’m always trying to come up with new, slightly different (from the programs you see in the “mainstream,” at least) training regimens.  When you have plenty of effective, result-producing programs in your workout arsenal, then you’ll always have something to go to when what you’re currently doing stops working at that 8-week mark (or before).  Enter Total Body Mass Building, or TBMT for short.  As far as packing on slabs of muscle, but with a strength-building side effect, it’s pretty damn good.

     I often go on-and-on about how, for a strength program to be successful, it needs to properly manipulate the factors of volume, intensity, and frequency.  And that’s most certainly the case (this program keeps all of those factors fairly “moderate,” for instance).  But a program needs two other things to be successful: variety and stability.  Those two are, as words, almost diametrically opposed to each other.  But that’s also why they’re the yin/yang of a good program.  Let me explain…

     Variety is important because without it your muscle gains will shortly stop cold in their tracks.  The more advanced you are (in terms of muscle and strength, not in terms of how long you have been lifting) the more variety you need.  If you are a beginning lifter, you should probably stick with a certain set/rep/exercise scheme for 5 to 6 workouts in a row, as an example.  If you are an intermediate trainee, your set/rep/exercise scheme should change after 3, or at the most 4, sessions.  And if you’re really friggin’ big and strong, you need some kind of set/rep/exercise change almost every time that you hit the gym.  But none of that means that you need to just randomly change stuff up on a periodic or even workout-to-workout basis.  Far from it, in fact.  That’s where stability comes into the fold.

     Stability is important because it’s the container that holds all of the variety within it.  Stability means two things.  First, it means consistency.  If you are not consistent in your workouts, it won’t matter how much variety you inject; the gains just aren’t going to come your way.  Second, it means a template.  An example of a template I often use is the “heavy/light/medium” approach.  This template has the lifter working out three days each week, heavy the first day, light the second day, and medium on the third day.  When using this system, the template (heavy/light/medium) is never deviated from, but it still allows for plenty of variety—sets, reps, and/or exercise can change at every workout if need be.

     Total Body Mass Training is effective because it takes into account both variety and stability.  The variety comes through changing the set/rep scheme workout-to-workout and week-to-week, and the stability comes from a three-days-a-week template that is never deviated from throughout the course of running the program.  Day one is for mass building, day two is for hypertrophy and muscular endurance, and day three is for strength and power.

     Here’s a brief outline.  After that, I will show you what 6 weeks of training might look like, then give you a few tips to round things out.

Day One: The MASS Workout

     The first training day of the week is for building mass.  When it comes to strictly gaining muscle, you need a moderate number of sets combined with a moderate number of reps (on average—as with all things lifting, there are exceptions for some trainees).  Over years of training a lot of lifters, I have found that 5 to 8 sets of 5 to 8 reps seem to work best for hypertrophy (strength, not so much).  8 sets of 5 being the one I probably recommend the most.

     On this program, you will change the set/rep combination on a weekly basis, with a few active recovery weeks thrown in for good measure.

Day Two: Semi-H.I.T. Training

     The second day of training is primarily geared toward muscle endurance, although hypertrophy can be a byproduct of this sort of training.  Here, we are going to use a limited number of sets combined with a fairly high number of repetitions.  This kind of training, of course, is most popular with the H.I.T. (or high intensity training) crowd.

     Usually, lifters think one of two things about the H.I.T. approach.  Either they think it’s the greatest training method since the invention of the barbell, or they believe it to be the scourge of muscle-gains everywhere, a dead end approach that builds laziness and little else.

     I think H.I.T. training is a tool.  If used properly, the tool can aid you in your muscle-building, size-inducing quest.  If used as an end-all, be-all form of training, however, it does end up breeding little other than laziness.  (Sorry, all of you “HIT-ters” out there, but I’m actually being nicer than usual in regards to your crowd.)  Here, we are going to use it as a tool.

     In this program, I call it semi-H.I.T. training because you will not always be taking your work sets to failure.

Day Three: The Strength and Power Session

     The third day of the week will be devoted solely to strength and power, using low sets for a low number of reps.  This form of lifting is popular among powerlifters, especially guys (or gals) who are trying to stay in their weight class, and don’t need to gain extra muscle mass.  Combined with the other forms of training on this program, it really helps to add density and mass, not just maximum strength.

The TBMT Program

     Presented here is an example 6-week training block.  You can run this program for 6 weeks then move onto something entirely different.  If you do want to stick with the program after the 6-week mark, I’ll give you some recommendations after I’ve laid out the initial training regimen.

Week One

Day One—Mass

Squats: 5 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 5 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 5 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Day Two—Muscular Endurance/Hypertrophy

Two-arm kettlebell front squats: 2 sets of 30 reps (stop several reps shy of failure)

Dumbbell Bench Presses: 2 sets of 15 reps (stop a couple reps shy of failure)

Wide Grip Chins: 2 sets until failure

Dumbbell Curls: 2 sets of 15 reps (each arm; stop a couple reps shy of failure)

Ab work: 2 sets of 30-40 reps

Day Three—Strength and Power

Squats: 3 sets of 3 reps

Bench Presses: 3 sets of 3 reps

Power Cleans: 3 sets of 3 reps

Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 3 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Week Two

Day One

Squats: 5 sets of 8 reps

Barbell Overhead Presses: 5 sets of 8 reps

Deadlifts: 5 sets of 8 reps

Barbell Curls: 5 sets of 8 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Day Two

Walking lunges (bodyweight): 1 set of 15 reps (each leg)

Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 1 set of 20-25 reps (take set a couple reps shy of failure)

Close Grip Chins: 2 sets until failure

Cable Curls: 1 set of 20-25 reps (take set to failure)

Ab work: 2 sets of 30-40 reps

Day Three

Squats: 3 sets of 3 reps

Bench Presses: 3 sets of 3 reps

Power Cleans: 3 sets of 3 reps

Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 3 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Week Three (active recovery)

Day One

Squats: 2 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Overhead Presses: 2 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 2 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 2 sets of 5 reps

Ab work: 2 sets of 25 reps

Day Two

Two-arm kettlebell front squats: 1 set of 30 reps (stop several reps shy of failure)

Dumbbell Bench Presses: 1 set of 15 reps (stop several reps shy of failure)

Wide Grip Chins: 1 set a few reps shy of failure

Dumbbell Curls: 1 set of 15 reps (each arm; stop several reps shy of failure)

Ab work: 1 set of 30-40 reps

Day Three

Squats: 3 sets of 3 reps

Bench Presses: 3 sets of 3 reps

Power Cleans: 3 sets of 3 reps

Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 3 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Week Four

Day One

Squats: 8 sets of 5 reps

Bench Presses: 8 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 8 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 8 sets of 5 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Day Two

Walking lunges (bodyweight): 1 set of 15 reps (stop several reps shy of failure)

Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 1 set of 20-25 reps (stop several reps shy of failure)

Close Grip Chins: 2 sets until failure

Cable Curls: 1 set of 20-25 reps (take set to failure)

Ab work: 2 sets of 30-40 reps

Day Three

Squats: 3 sets of 3 reps

Bench Presses: 3 sets of 3 reps

Power Cleans: 3 sets of 3 reps

Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 3 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Week Five (active recovery)

Day One

Squats: 2 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Overhead Presses: 2 sets of 5 reps

Deadlifts: 2 sets of 5 reps

Barbell Curls: 2 sets of 5 reps

Ab work: 2 sets of 25 reps

Day Two

Walking lunges (bodyweight): 1 set of 15 reps (each leg)

Incline Dumbbell Flyes: 1 set of 20-25 reps (take set a couple reps shy of failure)

Close Grip Chins: 1 se a few reps shy of failure

Cable Curls: 1 set of 20-25 reps (stop several reps shy of failure)

Ab work: 2 sets of 30-40 reps

Day Three

Squats: 3 sets of 3 reps

Bench Presses: 3 sets of 3 reps

Power Cleans: 3 sets of 3 reps

Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 3 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Week Six

Day One

Squats: 8 sets of 8 reps

Bench Presses: 8 sets of 8 reps

Deadlifts: 8 sets of 8 reps

Barbell Curls: 8 sets of 8 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Day Two

Two-arm kettlebell front squats: 2 sets of 30 reps (stop several reps shy of failure)

Dumbbell Bench Presses: 2 sets of 15 reps (stop a couple reps shy of failure)

Wide Grip Chins: 2 sets until failure

Dumbbell Curls: 2 sets of 15 reps (each arm; stop a couple reps shy of failure)

Ab work: 2 sets of 30-40 reps

Day Three

Squats: 3 sets of 3 reps

Bench Presses: 3 sets of 3 reps

Power Cleans: 3 sets of 3 reps

Barbell Curls: 3 sets of 3 reps

Ab work: 5 sets of 25 reps

Tips and Pointers

• All of the sets listed are “straight” sets.  Be sure that you warm up properly on each exercise before beginning your work sets.  The number of warm-up sets needed will depend upon your strength.

• On Day One, use a weight where you may find it hard to do all sets for the required rep range.  Your goal is to attempt to get all your reps on all your sets.  

• On Day Three, use a weight that would normally allow you 5 to 6 reps before reaching failure.  Keep pushing the weights up on this day as much as possible.

• On your active recovery weeks, use a weight for your days that are about half of what was used the previous week on the different training days. All sets and reps should be very easy on these weeks.  Do not try to do this program without adding these active recovery weeks.  They are part and parcel of what makes this program work.

• Be sure to eat at least 5 high-calorie, high-protein meals every day.  If you can’t eat that many meals, replace a couple with a protein shake.

• Get at least 8 hours of sleep every night in order to promote optimum recovery.

• After you finish all 6 weeks of training, you can take another active recovery week before moving on to your next program or you can just take the week off and completely relax.

• If you want to try it for another 6-week training block, then don’t be afraid to change up exercises and set/rep schemes.  For instance, on the Day One exercises, try 4 sets of 10, 5 sets of 6, or even 10 sets of 10 regimens.  On Day Three, try 5 sets of doubles, or even 10 sets of singles.  And when you change to a new exercise, always think same but different.

     I originally wrote a version of this program around 10 years ago, but this one is a bit different from the original, as it includes different exercises, and it uses active recovery weeks—something that I think is important more and more as I train longer and longer.

     Give this one a try and discover the benefits of total body mass training.  I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised with the mass-building, strength-gaining results.